There is no strict regulation related to herbal products and retail corporations like GNC, Walgreens and Walmart. They are taking advantage of this situation by selling herbal supplements that don’t include the ingredients stated on their labels.

The NY State attorney general’s office started a research and thorough investigation focused on supplements sold in the following retailers – Walmart, Target, GNC and Walgreens.

The results of the investigation were shocking. These popular retail stores offer dietary herbal supplements that don’t include the herbs listed on the labels. What is even worse is that the majority of these supplements come with latent allergens that can’t be found on the label.

Obviously, these retailers have received letters in which they were urged to pull all the misleading products from their shelves.

The letters that were revealed in the New York Times included a part in which the retailers are warned that modification, contamination and incorrectly labeling of their herbal supplements is viewed as deceptive business practice and what is more important, this practice presents significant health risk for customers.

The following is an explanation of some of the findings that come as a result of the aforementioned investigation:

Spring Valley Brand – Products Offered by Walmart:

Saw Palmetto

Certain products had only small quantities of saw palmetto

Both rice and garlic were part of this product

Echinacea

There were no traces of Echinacea or any plant material in the supplement

Gingko Biloba

There was no presence of gingko biloba in the supplement

On the other hand, the produced had dracaena, rice, radish, wheat and mustard

Ginseng

There was no ginseng present in this product

However, the supplement included citrus, dracaena, pine, rice and wheatgrass.

Garlic

Only one sample had small quantities of garlic

The supplement had wheat, dracaena, pine, rice and palm.

St. John’s Wort

There are no traces of St. John’s Wort

The supplement included rice, garlic and cassava.

Finest Nutrition Brand, Products Offered by Walgreens:

Saw Palmetto

The supplement included saw palmetto

Echinacea

There were no traces of Echinacea

On the other hand, there were rice, garlic and daisy in this product.

Gingko Biloba

There was no Gingko Biloba present in this supplement

Instead, the investigation found rice.

Ginseng

Ginseng was not present in this product

They have found rice and garlic

Garlic

No garlic found

Traces of dracaena, rice, palm and wheat detected

St. John’s Wort

No traces of St. John’s Wort in this product

The investigators found rice, garlic and dracaena

Herbal Plus Brand, Products Offered by GNC:

Saw Palmetto

Only one sample had palmetto in it.

Most of the samples included different ingredients like asparagus, rice and primrose.

Echinacea

There was no presence of Echinacea detected

On the other hand, they’ve found rice in some of the samples.

Gingko Biloba

The investigation didn’t find any Gingko Biloba

They have found spruce, garlic, asparagus and rice.

Ginseng

No ginseng found among samples

Did detect dracaena, rice, citrus, wheatgrass and pine.

Garlic

The product contained garlic.

St. John’s Wort

There was no presence of St. John’s Wort

The product contained rice, garlic and dracaena.

Up & Up Brand, Products Offered by Target

Saw Palmetto

The majority of tests have shown clear presence of saw palmetto

Some of these tests have shown that there is no plant DNA.

Echinacea

The majority of tests (even though not all of them) confirmed the presence of Echinacea